Recently, a group of researchers somewhat managed to replicate a human brain by using two layers of modelling gel. The researchers were surprised that the brain model that they've created looked so much like the real human brain.
The process that the scientists followed was tricky to say the least. First they had to collect images of fetal brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to create the exact and accurate features of a developing human brain. Then they had to layer the outside part of the brain model with a stretchy elastomer gel to imitate the cortical layer. The replica was subsequently placed in a tub of solvent. Little did the researchers know that soaking up the "mock" brain in solvent will create the expanding motion that the human brain does.
Jun Young Chung, a researcher from Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences who is also the co-author of the study, has since discussed how surprised they were that the mock brain reacted the way it did. According to Chung, he expected some folding to happen however he was quite shocked with the accuracy of the model.
"When I put the model into the solvent, I knew there should be folding, but I never expected that kind of close pattern compared to [the] human brain, It looks like a real brain."
A soft matter physicist at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, Dr. Tallinen, co author and physicist at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland has also spoken out about their discovery. He claims that their discovery would give way to more research that would lead to a deeper understanding of the brain.
"The things that we saw in our model will inevitably happen in real brains as well, just as a consequence of this simple expansion" explained Tallinen.
